Running 2023-24 NCAA Basketball Thread

Not hoops but LSU won the women's gymnastics title - and nope, Livvy Dunne didn't see the floor, or vault, or beam, or bars....but she is in a lot of the photos.

 

She hasnt been a serious athlete for two years now. Its become very obvious shes protecting and avoiding putting up poor performances

 

Goin’ great!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/19/sports/brandeis-womens-basketball-team-toxic-racism/

 

LSU had a team score of 198.2250 in the finals, about 1.73 away from a perfect score. Who ya benching to put her in? She got into eight meets this year and averaged a 9.857 on floor. There's probably an argument to be made that she should transfer to another school where she would compete more regularly, but that's pretty common across all women's sports still, the concentration of talent at a couple of schools. I think as a model who also does gymnastics, she's probably going to get criticized regardless of what she does.

 

The big story from women’s gymnastics this weekend was Oklahoma’s three-peat dreams crumbling in the semifinals when they had to count three falls from the first rotation on the vault. That’s like Patrick Mahomes forgetting how to catch a snap.

 

My wife (former college gymnast) and I were in attendance. Surprisingly, they were still alive even after that, IIRC! But then they had two falls on the beam and were done. LSU also survived a late scare, since they only had five out of six go through the beam clean. If they had another drop, then Cal would have been pretty shocking national champions, since Utah dropped from 1st to 3rd in the final rotation after having their own issues on vault.

 

Oklahoma’s coach noticed before their beam rotation that the apparatus was wobbly (possibly because Bama gymnasts kept smacking it on the way down to the mats as they stumbled like a sorority retreat suddenly facing a sobriety checkpoint.) I turned it off after second rotation but I’d guess that Boomer Sooner was pressing to try and rack up huge scores to try and make up ground.

Maybe I’ll start a running thread next winter. Gymnastics with my daughter is some of the best fun I have in Tuscaloosa these days.

 

In her peer group, averaging a 9.85 is like hitting .240 in baseball. They hand out 9.85s like M&Ms in college meets.

 

Probably not a coincidence that Georgia canned their coach after suddenly realizing Oklahoma is joining the SEC in gymnastics as well.

 

GymDogs have not won a conference or national title since Suzanne Yoculan retired in 2009 and have been downright terrible for nearly a decade now.

 

I think this is the definition of the word "humblebrag."

 

Ha, a bit! But also to explain my presence as a 40-year-old man without a child and not working a sports beat anymore at a gymnastics meet.